Vladimir Putin orders exercises with tactical nuclear weapons in the face of ‘threats from the West’

Furthermore, add the note, The exercises seek to “improve the level of readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces when carrying out combat missions.”

The Russian Army intends to “unconditionally guarantee the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian State in response to provocative statements and threats made by certain Western leaders against the Russian Federation.”

Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, in February 2022, Putin has put the possibility of resorting to nuclear weapons on the table several times.
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​This time, the Kremlin stated that these exercises are a response to statements by leaders of Western powers about the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine.

“They spoke about the willingness and even intention to send military contingents to Ukraine, that is, to put NATO soldiers against the Russian military. That is a new spiral of escalation of tension. It is unprecedented and requires special attention and special measures,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

The spokesperson singled out French President Emmanuel Macron, whose rhetoric he called “very dangerous,” as did statements by senior British and American officials.

Last week, Macron reiterated his position on a possible sending of troops to Ukraine, which he had already raised in February.
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“If the Russians broke the front lines, if there was a Ukrainian request – which is not the case today – we should legitimately raise the question,” said the French president.

The exercises ordered by Vladimir Putin They will include the aviation, the navy and the forces of the Southern Military District, which is based very close to Ukraine and covers the Ukrainian regions whose annexation Moscow claims, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The date and place of the exercises was not specified.

Russian nuclear doctrine provides for the “strictly defensive” use of nuclear weapons in the event of an attack on Russia with weapons of mass destruction or in case of aggression with conventional weapons “that threaten the existence of the State.”

In October 2023, Russia announced that Putin supervised ballistic missile launches during military exercises aimed at simulating a “massive nuclear attack” by Moscow.
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Several senior Russian officials have also suggested the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory, while they have opposed the possible placement of this type of weapons by the US in the United Kingdom.

In addition, Putin approved at the time the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a country from whose territory Russian troops entered Ukraine in the first days of the current war.

​Last February, in response to alleged NATO plans to deploy troops to Ukraine, Putin also highlighted that Russian strategic nuclear forces are “in full combat readiness.”
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Russia revoked its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) last year, although it maintains the moratorium in force as long as the US does not carry out tests of this type.

​These maneuvers take place on the eve of Putin’s inauguration for a fifth term in the Kremlin, who has increased spending in the last decade on the modernization of the Russian nuclear triad – intercontinental missiles, atomic submarines and strategic aviation – to maintain parity with the United States.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the Russian army claimed the capture of two other towns in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s troops have recorded several advances in recent months.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that its soldiers “liberated” the towns of Kotliarivka, in the northeast, and Soloviove, in the Donetsk region, in the east, near the town of Ocherétine, whose capture Moscow claimed on Sunday.

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Russia has been on the offensive since the failure of the great counterattack launched by Ukraine in mid-2023, benefiting from the wear and tear of kyiv’s army, which is having difficulty recruiting new soldiers to repel the invasion that began in February 2022.

Separately, at least six people were killed and 35 injured in a Ukrainian drone bombing in the Russian border region of Belgorod, where attacks by kyiv forces are common, according to its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.